All is well that ends well

All the stress I have had before coming to Texas, getting my visa, booking a flight, coming up with enough money, buying health insurence. All the stress I have had coming to Texas, getting things straightened out with soo many people, losing old friends, finding new ones in the process. All the stress I had being in Texas, getting school work done for both UT and Uni Essen, adjusting to the work load, the people, the language, the culture. Yes, life indeed has given me a lemon. But you know what they say: When life gives you a lemon, ask for salt and tequila. And so I did, I took the tequila. And it was good. I have had an amazing time. Thank you UT, thank you Austin, thank you America.

This was the German speaking.

Over and out.

Things I'll miss about Texas, Part II

Today: Astronomy.

No, I'll not miss the class itself. Even though it has been a wonderful experience and I've learned a lot about stars and galaxies and black holes (which turn out to be fairly rare and relatively small so that it is quite hard to actually fall into one by accident...), I am very happy that the class is over. Considering all the time I have spent studying mathematical equations and refreshing math fundamentals it makes me all the more happy to actually have time now to forget all those mathematical equations and math fundamentals again.

I'll miss astronomy because it showed me how insignificant and small we are in relation to the universe which will go on expanding and expanding wayyyyy into the future. Because now I know how to fill out a scantron right. Because I will not forget that the Earth actually is NOT the center of our galaxy, much less of the universe (I know, crazy, right?!).
And because Hot-Guy-Sitting-In-The-Row-Behind-Me opened his laptop to play the theme melody of Star Trek. During the final.

Totally unimportant

If you're number 27 waiting in line for the computers at the library during finals, it takes you on average 14 Minutes to get one. Not too bad.

Blondie

My time here in Austin is slowly but surely coming to an end. And because I am so aware of that, I begin to think of all the things I will miss here.

Let me tell you about Blondie. Blondie probably isn't her real name (and if it were that would only add to her charisma), but it suits her well. Blondie is a true original. She never fails to amaze me with skillful and complicated hair-dos, pinned up by her long, pink nails, held in place by a variety of red and pink butterfly clips, her died golden locks professionally going this way and that, giving the impression of not only a creative and innovative updo, but at the same time of an early spring meadow, alive with butterflies and dragonflies and all kinds of flies, bouncing on blades of golden grass; a dynamic as well as peaceful scenario. Wow, I got carried away.
Anyway.

Blondie drives a bus. She is as creative with her hair and pink nails as she is driving that bus. Whereas other bus drivers stop at red traffic lights and accelerate when it turns green again, Blondie lets out all her unbounded innovative spirit. She slowly creeps up to green traffic lights. Red lights seem to come as a surprise to her. Every time. And even though she always tries to get through, she never does. The light turning red always makes her abruptly stop the bus, at the last second. You would think that the yellow phase would be warning enough of a future change to red (- and I practically hear certain friends call out loud: "Yellow means GO FASTER!!" I love you, guys!!), but - oh, no! - she always thinks she can make it. She never can. Red just comes too fast. Evil red, evil!
And whereas other bus drivers make the way from campus to Riverside in about 15 minutes - and therefore I know that the distance can be covered in that time span! - Blondie delights us with her pure presence and takes close to 30 minutes, even if I-35 is not packed with traffic. Who says an express way has something to do with express, anyway...
She is also the only bus driver that takes regular potty breaks. Or calls her family from her cell phone and jabbers on and on in Spanish even though she could (and should) get going.

There again, she also brings out emotions. Yes, she is such a big part of my life that every time I see her, it makes me feel a certain way. Seeing her drive up when I need to take the bus home or to campus makes me moan and sigh and wail, and I am annoyed real quick, desperately wishing for another bus I could take instead. And not just me! A friend and I are getting pretty good at simultaneously venting all pent-up frustration, rolling eyes and moaning and all that good stuff, when we see her slowly, veeeery slowly, drive up to the bus stop. By now she knows us. We're the ones sneering and snickering at her current meadow-like hair-do when getting in her bus.
But then, she makes us laugh, too. Mostly when we do not need to get on her bus and see her driving those poor souls who rely on her to get from A to B. Yes, that very friend and I just crack up in those situations. In public. Just because we see her.

Oh, Blondie, you manage to make my day. What will I do without you?

Three cheers for modern technology

I am a big fan of paper. In a kind of a nerdy way. For example, I smell books. (German pocket books smell better than American pocket books; American hardcovers smell better than their German counterpart, but German ones feel better, and my American astronomy book feels nice but stinks - attention, fellow linguistic and language students, ambiguity!)
I like writing with a pen on paper. And even though that might make me look antiquated in the eyes of those well equipped super-students with their teenie-tiny laptops, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBooks who are sitting in class and playing Farmville, I still take notes by hand.
I am okay with that. I can write fast, and even though I don't have a spell check, I am doing good (well, except for that one time when I forgot the 'l' in 'public'...). I write fairly small, so I don't even need a lot of paper. And the best thing is: unless my dog eats my homework, or my roommate sets the apartment on fire with a corndog, there really isn't much that can happen to my notes.

Now, all those well equipped super-students with their teenie-tiny laptops, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBooks who are sitting in class and playing Farmville, are not that lucky, it seems.

By group emails, set up by each course, people can easily communicate with the whole class and ask people for help when, say, they missed class and don't know what's been going on. And a recurring theme of these mails is : "Help, I lost my notes!"

Francine S. from my astro-class writes: "My computer has seemed to misplace or erase them when it shut down the other night. Therefore I lost ALL of my notes. It would be greatly appreciated if someone could send me theirs." Bummer. Of course it was the computer that misplaced them. And it shut down all by itself. No comment.

Similarly, James S. (ironically, his last name is very similar to that of Francine...), also from my astronomy class, writes: "hey...I have been taking notes on my computer... but my roommate 'accidentally' deleted them all when using my computer...I have nothing to study." Well, that is hilarious. Putting 'accidentally' in inverted commas pretty much lets me know that you, dear James, don't believe that your roommate acted accidentally. But on purpose. Bad roommate! Punish him! You should "shoot him on the moon", as we Germans say, and let him make the measurements required for class on location. That would be more exact and you could forget about all the mathematical formualae. And why was he/she using your computer in the first place?

My personal favorite call for help is this one:
Leslie L. from my mythology class writes: "My car got broken into, and all my notes were stolen." I love that one! I can practically imagine the car thief - let's call him Carl, that seems to be a good name for a car thief - approaching an aged Ford Taurus, carefully looking around to make sure there are no witnesses, prying open the window with his crowbar - a car thief needs a crow bar, right? - then staring satisfied at the BOSE-soundsystem and the Tomtom GPS that the studious and well equipped super-student with her teenie-tiny laptop, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBook who are sitting in class and playing Farmville has worked for very hard at her part-time job at McDonald's and during the summer holidays.
But then Burgler Carl's face brightens as his gaze falls on a stack of paper sitting on the passenger seat. He realizes: that is exactly what he needs! His whole criminal career, ignoring rules and laws, living as an outcast on the margins of American society and accepting his desperate situation, prying open car doors and stealing things that aren't his but that he feels should be, all of that suddenly makes sense. All the pieces fall into place as he realizes that fate has taken him here, to the Ford Taurus of Leslie L., to make his suffering and all his trouble worthwhile. He heard angels singing and rays of sunlight emanating from the paper stack as he picked it up and read: Classical Mythology......

I honestly feel sorry for Leslie: she obviously didn't rely on technology that much and still got screwed. But - who knows - maybe her notes on ancient mythology really changed Burglar Carl's life.... She should be glad he didn't take her teenie-tiny laptop, or pink, green, burnt orange or even tattooed MacBook...

Pubic Relations 101

Hello everybody. After a great winter break that I spent in Snohomish/the Seattle area as well as on the Big Island of Hawai'i, I started school again this week. Today was my first day. My brain must still be on vacation. Thus, I already managed to embarrass myself. Here we go...

I am taking great and very interesting classes this semester, one of them (my favorite one so far) being "Fundamentals of Public Relations". Yes, my friends, read those words closely. After I had spent a long day on campus today, concentrating very hard on Astronomy (with math!!) and Classical Mythology, I got a little tired during the PR lecture. My neighbor, a girl in a Texas-hoodie (what else??) with a huge brown pony tail that she repeatedly swished in my direction - don't you hate those people that think their hair is sooo important iut should have its own side of the table? - kept looking at my notes. But only about 45 minutes into the lecture did I see what she saw. And what made her look again and again.

On the top of my page I wrote "Pubic Relations". Now it is up to you, my German friends, to take out your dictionaries and find out why that is an embarrassing mistake. I don't even think UT offers a course like that. Bummer...!

Bad Hair Day, Take2

Any sarcastic or slightly funny feeling I might have had left about the situtation yesterday is gone now. And those of you I yelled at know that wasn't much (Sorry again, guys!!). I just talked to the lady at the office of the registrar in Essen. She cannot find any document suggesting my leave of absence. Of course she doesn't say that. She says, there is none, meaning I haven't filed one. So obviously somebody was too incapable to file away a piece of paper, which, quite frankly, is probably all it says in their job description anyhow. You only have to be able to file stuff away and know where the documents are, right? Uggggh.....why is there so much incompetence in this world? And why always in administration? Those of you who know me, also know how much luck I have had with paper work of any kind in the past 4 months, e.g NOT MUCH!
She didn't seem to be surprised that I transfered money; UDE must receive donations over 12 Euros quite often. That, in turn, doesn't surprise me at all. Must be all they spend on student services all year. Yeah, I know, now I am getting spiteful.
We'll see how it turns out. She said she'd check and look for my request, and I'm getting ready to mail off everything she needs in case I need to file another request. And, of course, I'll have to pay an additional fee because I'm late.
Who invented administration, anyways?

PS: My hair looks fantastic again....coincidence??